The Cave

X360, PS3, WiiU, PC, Mac

BajoAlright guys, let's dive into some spelunking action with The Cave!

DARRENThe Cave comes to us from Double Fine, the team responsible for games such as Stacking and Costume Quest, and for this game, veteran games designer Ron Gilbert has come on board. Older spawnlings will know Gilbert for his work on some of the all time great adventure games such as Maniac Mansion, Grim Fandango and The Secret of Monkey Island.

HexYeah, and the head of Double Fine is actually Gilberts long time friend Tim Schafer who worked alongside him on those games, so this is kind of a reunion project for the two of them.

BajoOk I think that's enough history guys, let's get into the actual review. So The Cave takes place in a magical talking Cave that also acts as the games narrator. As the game starts you're presented with seven different characters to choose all with their own little story and motivation for going into the cave. Then once you pick any combination of three of them, it's off into the depths...

HexThis game is really all about solving puzzles, using all three characters to flip switches or grab items, and there's some basic platforming to be done in between. There is the odd enemy scattered around but dying isn't a concern as you'll just respawn nearby, in fact you can even grab special items to solve puzzles and get killed, then just respawn safely with the item.

DARRENThat sounds suspiciously like cheating...

HexWell if the game lets you do it, it's not cheating DARREN...

DARRENHmmm... well I'm going to half charge my laser Hex, and if I suspect any more cheating from you...pew. Noob destroyed.

HexAlright DARREN, cool your lasers... sheesh.

BajoAnyway, each character has different special skills which you'll need to use for solving the puzzles, so for example the Knight has a shield that can protect him from falls and fire, while the hillbilly can blow a big spit bubble to act as a helmet so he can swim underwater longer...

HexEwww...

BajoYeah, in typical Double Fine form it's full of little jokes and silly bits of humour and really I thought that was one of the best parts of the game. The platforming is pretty basic and the puzzles are usually move that thing here, flip that switch there, bring that item to that guy. There are a few clever head scratchers in there although it's mostly stuff we've seen before. But with the quirky humor it all works well.

HexYeah, but I have to point out there seemed to be a few little technical problems. I hit a few glitches that forced me to quit and start from the last checkpoint... that usually fixed it but it's still frustrating and confusing when stuff like that happens, because you're not sure if the game is just broken or if you're doing something wrong.

DARRENI also noticed regular frame rate drops, even when nothing was really happening...

HexWell I didn't mind those, but yeah, it has a few rough spots. Overall though I liked the style of it all and each character has got loads of charm.

BajoYeah, and it's clever how depending on which characters you bring into the cave it actually changes the puzzles and layout. So there's some solid replay value with loads of quirky areas to discover like a carnival and ancient Egyptian pyramid, and the puzzles really play with the characters special abilities.

DARRENPersonally I found some of the constant character switching to become tiresome. Having to switch between characters and go through the same parts of levels multiple times or to bring everyone onto a lift or pressure plate can be a bit of a chore, and it could've been avoided if they simply had a button that could call your team mates over to you.

HexYeah that would've been a nice feature, but there is local multiplayer which helps out a bit with that character switching but it doesn't actually do split screen. So you often need to all just take turns moving your character around while the rest of you sit and watch. It's still nice to be able to play with friends tho.

BajoOne thing that started to bug me was the lack of any inventory. Each character can only hold one item at a time so if you walk past an item you need for a puzzle you'll often have to back track a few minutes to go get it. It just slows the pacing down. But anyway, final thoughts Hex?

HexWell it's a fun little adventure with some clever ideas, it misses the mark sometimes but I still had a good time exploring the cave, so I'm giving it 7.5